Hear No Secrets, Tell No Lies
by After The Lights
Summary: Your meant to be able to trust your friends with anything, and feel like they can turn to you in times of need. But what would you do if your friend was keeping a secret from you? One that is slowly tearing them apart.
1. Chapter 1 Hitting On The Wrong Girl

_**Disclaimer -**_** I do not own Final Fantasy X-2, any of it's characters or anything to do with Square-Enix. If I did, I don't think I'd need to still be in school.**

Okay, so this is my first ever fanfic, so please be nice. Criticism is welcome but don't sound too harsh if you give me any. I wrote this chapter quite a while ago in about 1 and a half hours ,when I was trying to get to sleep and couldn't. I decided that I may as well try writing and I did and this chapter was the finished product. I'm quite pleased with it given the circumstances and I hope that you enjoy it_. Jess X_

**Chapter 1 **

**Hitting on the Wrong Girl**

Paine attempted to stifle a yawn as she sat on the grass watching the guys practise their blitz passes.

She never really understood what was so great about blitzball; how men could turn on a sphere broadcaster and within a minute they'd have their eyes glued to the screen, instantly captivated.

The guys practised passing every day and asked her if she wanted to join, but every time she turned them down and chose to sit on the grass. She'd sat on the same patch for nearly three years now and she was surprised that insect life still lived within it. She was certain she'd crushed them all to death with her behind.

Another thing Paine didn't get was why they practised in the quad. Blitz was a water sport, wasn't it? So wouldn't it make more sense to practise whilst actually _in _water? She sighed and lay down, glad that it was midday and that there was no dew left to dampen her shirt.

Silently, she cursed herself for not bringing her portable music sphere player so she settled on watching the clouds float past in the cerulean sky. She decided that blitzball was just another thing that separated males from females. Other things included logic (women had more); common sense (ditto); shopping; maturity; music tastes; obsessions with sex and how minds worked.

Though she'd never admit it, Paine was extremely glad to have the XX genetic code or chromosome or whatever it was their teacher had been going on about last Biology lesson. Sure, she never wore dresses or skirts, she detested anything pink or fluffy and often pretended to gag during rom-coms, but that didn't stop her from being a girl at heart.

And it was much better than being a boy who, as she liked to point out, a lot of the time thought with their dicks.

She sighed again and started humming to herself, pondering over unimportant things like if that cloud looked more like a moogle without the pom-pom thing or a seriously spasticated catuar, and whether or not Clasko, her Biology lab partner, was gay or not.

Paine sat up when she caught shot of the familiar noise in the distance. She glanced at her watch. 12.50pm, right on time.

Only a few first years and newbies were looking uncomfortable, fearing that the increasingly loud sound was an impending thunderstorm and that the shrieking was because someone had released the bite bugs from the science labs again.

She chuckled to herself. They'd find out what it was soon enough.

She raised her hand and signalled to the guys who then got into position. Gippal was in charge of the ammo a.k.a the blitzball as usual. He looked hungry. Now all they had to do was wait for their prey.

-------------------------

Rikku raced down the school corridors at high speed, her braids swinging wildly and her scarf trailing behind her. Her feet pounded against the linoleum floor tiles and her arms were out in front, ready to shove open doors or push people out of the way.

She hated it when people just stood there; they had no excuse. She was yelling '**Outta my way**' and '**Move**' at her second loudest volume and when she ran she sounded like a stampede of shoopufs. And if they were deaf, well…, it's not like they couldn't see her. Dressed in lime green leggings, an orange mini skirt, canary tank top, cream arm warmers and a red/yellow scarf to finish it off, she wasn't exactly inconspicuous.

She crashed through the doors leading out of the main building, dodged through the groups of people on the pathway and narrowly avoided colliding with Datto (which would have been bad seeing as he _always _stank of patchouli oil).

Rikku was feeling out of breath from running and shrieking but she didn't care. She had the most amazing news to tell Yunie and nothing was going to stop her, except maybe from collapsing from a heart attack.

She finally slowed down as she reached the quad and spotted her cousin sitting over the other side with her friend Lulu. She waved and began to head over, running, but at a much slower pace than before.

She didn't notice that the ribbon ties of her platform wedge sandals were about to trail loose, or the three boys hidden in the bushes who were watching her every move.

-----------------------------------

"Target spotted," whispered Baralai to his fellow comrades whilst pointing to the person in question.

"Yeah, thanks for pointing out the obvious 'Lai. Despite the fact that I wear an eye patch I'm not completely blind y'know."

Nooj sniggered quietly to himself, recalling the numerous times that Gippal had either:

**A **- walked into something e.g. lampposts, doors, girls, etc.

**B **- asked where the hell he was when a street sign or '_Welcome to someplaceinSpira'_ sign was right next to him.

**C** - asked how a word was spelt when it was written on the board.

**D** - almost got run-over because he didn't see the hover coming.

Gippal glared at his friend before returning his gaze to the target. She was running across to where her cousin was sat with her friend, but at a very slow pace. She was obviously worn out because of something she'd been doing previously. He tightened his grip on the blitzball. Today he would not miss.

"'Lai, you tell me when to throw the ball and Nooj, um …… just stand there looking important so nobody suspects anything, 'kay."

"Well, would you like to throw the ball with optimum height, speed, accuracy or when there's less wind or when there's more than a -"

"Just yell, **now**, when I should throw the ball. It's that simple, so don't try to overcomplicate things."

Baralai sighed. No matter what he did it was always too complex for Gippal's liking. The way he spoke, his Spiran Literature essays that Gippal often copied from, even the way he dressed. All of it wasn't simple enough for Gippal to understand. He told himself it was because Gippal was simple minded, nothing was wrong with him, just his friend.

He looked across the quad to find their target. She was halfway to reaching her destination. Not long to go now.

-----------------------------------

Paine had been watching the guys since she signalled to them. She'd seen Baralai point at the girl, seen Gippal's face as he made some remark and seen Nooj apparently having some private joke with himself.

Now all she could she was Nooj standing tall, chest puffed out, trying to look normal and failing miserably whilst standing besides two bushes that occasionally shook. The bush on her right had a growth of blonde spikes sticking up near the top and the one on the left had a large white patch. They wouldn't be working on any covert operations for the **S**piran **I**ntelligence **A**gency anytime soon then.

Their target was still running, but at an increasingly slow pace. She must be tired from the journey through the corridors. Something was wrong though.

Paine looked at the girl's feet and saw that the ribbon ties of her shoes were undone. One step on them and the girl would trip, making their plan a waste of time. She had to tell the guys.

There wasn't enough time to reach them so she inhaled deeply.

'_Just remember Paine, you don't care what people think about you. You don't care_,' she told herself.

Then she jumped up, began waving her arms frantically and shouting '**No**' as loud as she could.

--

Gippal squinted with his one eye. Just what the heck was Paine doing? Didn't she care that everyone was staring at her?

"What on Spira is Paine trying to say?" he asked Baralai, who was still crouched next to him.

"**Now!**" he bellowed in reply.

"What? And there's no need to yell,"

"**Now! Throw the ball now!**"

The two of them and Nooj watched the blitzball as it soared through the air, reaching its highest point almost dead centre in the middle of the quad. It rapidly began its descent but that was when it all went wrong.

Rikku stepped on one of her loose ribbon ties, stumbled, tripped and eventually fell to the ground with an anguished cry of '**Owie!**'

The boys watched the ball sail right past their target and hit Paine in the face with such a force that she fell back onto the grass with a thud.

Now _**that**_ wasn't supposed to happen.

--

She twitched all parts of her face to make sure it was all still intact. Yes, everything was fine apart from her left eye that was rather sore. No doubt Gippal had given her a black eye.

Slowly she stood up, slightly winded from being knocked backwards. Her gaze immediately fixed on Nooj, Baralai and Gippal. All three of them were giving her very meek smiles.

She smiled back but not meekly. This was a smile of both malice and happiness because despite what had happened, Paine was happy. She was going to get to play Hurtime which, after all, was her favourite game.

----------------------------

"Um guys. I think we're pretty much dead."

"Well you don't say. Why is it that whenever you're in charge, Paine always ends up pissed off with us, hmm?" enquired Nooj.

Baralai didn't say anything. He was too busy watching the girl who was about to kill him stride nearer towards them, a smile still present on her face.

"Oh yeah, I just remembered," said Gippal, trying to concoct an excuse so he could leave. "I have some library books that need to be back in today. I'll just go get them out of my locker and return them."

And with that, Gippal ran off, leaving two to face the wrath of Paine.

Nooj started pacing backwards, hoping that Baralai didn't hear him.

Unfortunately, he was standing on a patch of gravel so Baralai heard the crunching sound and turned to face him with a questioning look.

"Um, I, er, I was….."

Why was it that he could never think of excuses when they were urgently needed?

"I think I'll go and make out with Leblanc," Nooj announced before following the same path as Gippal.

Baralai was left standing besides the bushes with no choice but to face Paine alone. She was only ten steps away now and was a faster runner than him, so there was no point trying to flee.

He would have to face it like a man.

"Hello Baralai," said Paine when she reached him.

"Um, hi."

Why did his voice suddenly sound so high pitched?

"Would you like to play a game with me?"

He gulped. "S-sure. What's it called?"

"Oh I'm sure you're very familiar with it." She leant closer to whisper in his ear.

"It's called **Hurtime**."

-----------------

**AN **- I'm not quite sure when I'll update again as I'm quite busy at the moment but reviews are just the thing that I need to get me motivated. Thanks for reading.


	2. Chapter 2 Oh Brother

Disclaimer -_ I do not own Final Fantasy X-2, any of it's characters or anything to do with Square-Enix. If I did, I don't think I'd need to still be in school._

_**So I did say that I'm not a very reliable updater and I think I kinda proved it. I will try to get the next chapter up more quickly than I did with this one, but with the amount of homework and coursework my teachers are giving me I can't guarantee it. And thank you to my first reviewer, Yuna of Besaid, your words mean a lot to me. And don't worry about Baralai, he's still in one piece. Just. Jess X**_

**Chapter 2 **

**Oh Brother**

"Oh, you two must be sisters."

The only sentences that Lulu hated to hear more than that one were those which contained crude comments about her generously sized chest. She rarely received many remarks about it anymore. People tend to keep their mouths shut after you've attacked them with several firaga spells.

In her mind, she and Paine barely resembled each other. Yes, they both had scarlet eyes, ashen skin tones and a tendency to wear black clothing, but that didn't mean they were automatically related.

The rest of the world disagreed though. From their point of view they were sisters. In actual fact they were cousins.

Lulu exhaled deeply and began plucking the petals off a dandelion that was growing in a clump next to where she was sat. They were a common sight in the quad; LHS didn't really have the greatest outdoor maintenance budget. Some might say it was cruel to damage a plant like she was, but to be honest; Lulu was doing the school a favour. And anyway, it was only a weed.

She wished she was closer to Paine. Most of her relatives were happily wandering the Farplane so it made sense to be close to those still alive. The trouble was that neither she nor her cousin was the happy, open type of person who could feel at ease with anyone. They were the opposite.

Lulu glanced over to where Yuna was carefully helping a dazed Rikku to her feet. In an ideal world, she and Paine would be like them: constantly cheerful; practically inseparable and they'd have the ability to tell one another everything.

But Spira wasn't an ideal world so she'd just have to be content with the way things were.

Lulu plucked another dandelion and proceeded to pull off its petals. As each one fell, the echo of a smile became ever more visible on her face.

--------------------------

Baralai admired the view of the back of Paine as she strode across the quad on her quest for revenge. His position wasn't the greatest, lying on his front with his body half in and half out of the bushes, but he could still appreciate what he saw.

Yevon he loved that girl, even though the black eye she'd given him stung like a bitch. Still, that was her way of showing love.

Baralai, Gippal and Nooj had come up with a theory: the more Paine hurt you, the more she loved you. It seemed to explain her personality. Paine never gave hugs, preferring to punch people on the arm, pinch their cheeks or slap them on the shoulder.

They seemed to forget that she attacked them after ever situation they screwed up.

And there was one fact in particular that Baralai tried to erase from his head. That Paine seemed to get the most pleasure from beating up Gippal.

He gingerly stood up, wincing slightly as the pain in his side made itself known. His clothes were covered in a soil like dust so he brushed himself down before heading towards the toilets to inspect the damage.

As he crossed the quad a thought suddenly popped up in his mind. He could go and tell their target about why they constantly attacked her with blitz balls every lunchtime. That would teach Gippal not to mess with him.

He didn't do it though; he couldn't betray a friend like that.

'_Baralai, just remember. You are not jealous. I repeat, you are __**not **__jealous.' _

Seriously, who was he trying to kid?

-------------------------------

Despite the fact that she had a pair of freshly grazed knees and a twisted ankle, Rikku plonked herself down onto the grass with a thud and flattened any remaining dandelions that Lulu may have wanted to depluck.

Her cousin shook her head and raised her eyebrows at her friend as she gracefully positioned herself besides Lulu.

Rikku couldn't wait to reveal her amazing news to them but instead she was faced with a pair of intense and fairly anxious stares.

"I know I asked you before Rikku as I helped you up, but are you sure you're OK?

Yuna's face was so full of concern that Rikku couldn't help smiling, not that she didn't smile much anyway. She knew she was lucky to have such a great cousin.

"Yup yup. Just another pair of ripped leggings but I can easily buy some more," she replied, forgetting that she'd already spent all her Gil on a new movie sphere, Zaon and Yunalesca.

"Are you certain? No headaches or concussion or anything?"

"Yuna, calm down. It was only a fall, and I highly doubt many people would be able to differentiate a concussed Rikku from a normal one."

Lulu chose to ignore the glare she received from Rikku and continued.

"You realise that this is the third time this month you've fallen over."

A puzzled expression swept across Rikku's face.

"But it's only the third of the month today."

"Exactly."

A short silence fell between them during which Lulu started picking at blades of grass due to the absence of a nearby patch of weeds, Rikku inspected the new cuts on her knees, and Yuna thought of something to say.

"I think what Lulu is trying to say is that maybe you should wear more suitable

shoes to school."

She looked pointedly at the platform wedge sandals.

"Or maybe she should be more aware of the armed and dangerous boys in the bushes."

The look of complete and utter bewilderment on Rikku's face told Lulu that she needn't bother to explain. She'd find out someday, if the blitzballs hitting her on the head didn't destroy all her brain cells.

"So, why were you rushing over here in such a hurry in the first place?"

-------------------

The third floor corridor of the main school building seemed like an ordinary place. It had: the regulation fire extinguishers; a drinking fountain ; the classrooms used for Spiran and Minor Culture studies (Ronso, Guado and Hypello); and a whole wall which lockers were lined up against.

The only thing making it unique this lunchtime was that one of the lockers appeared to be having a conversation with itself.

"I can't believe I agreed to let you in here when there was barely any room to begin with. And stop making so much noise."

"Sorry, but it's rather difficult when half your limbs are made of metal."

"Actually they're not. They're made from polypropylene terephthalate. It's a mixture of plastic and metal fibres that gives the appearance of metal but it's much lighter."

"I stand corrected. Are you sure there are holes in this locker because I'm finding it quite hard to breathe?"

"Abso-positively certain."

The locker ceased to talk when it heard the tell tale _clip-clop _of Paine's killer Goth boots.

She tutted loudly as she stalked down the hallway, taking every step slowly to create more suspense. After three years the boys still believed she didn't know about their secret hiding place, Gippal's locker.

Paine reached out for the dial and gradually began turning it to the right numbers.

16 - the age Gippal was.

21 - the age he wanted to be.

And 7 - the number of times Gippal had won Spira's machina invention award for under 18s.

Just as she was about to turn the dial to 7 the bell rang, signalling the end of lunch. Paine sighed.

"Well boys, looks like you've been saved by the bell. You might not be so lucky next time."

And with that she walked away, leaving Nooj and Gippal stuck in the locker.

"You do realise that we can't get out unless someone from outside opens the door. If Paine doesn't, then who will?"

The corridor was filled with a deafening cry of, "**Oh Cred!" **

--------------------------------------

"So, you know how when I moaned to Pops about how bad a sibling Brother is and how it would be super-awesome if I got a new one and he went to social services and asked about fostering…"

Rikku was finally sharing her news with the girls and she was so excited that she appeared to forget about the existence of sentences.

"Yes."

Lulu was trying her best to sound apathetic when really she was quite eager to see hear about why Rikku was so hyped up.

"Well yesterday we got a call saying that they've got someone who said they'd like to stay with us. He's arriving on Sunday night."

"He?" exclaimed Yuna.

"Yup, I'm getting another brother, but this one's gonna be awesome. I can't

remember his name but I know I begins with Tide, but the I is pronounced as E for some reason. Ohh, and he's from Zanarkand, and he's your age Yunie."

The piercing sound of the bell echoed through the quad, so the girls stood up before heading to afternoon registration.

"He sounds wonderful already Rikku. I'm sure he'll fit right in."

"Awww, thanks Yunie."

All three of them began thinking about this mysterious tide-boy during the afternoon.

In Machina Engineering, Rikku began planning all the totally cool things she would have to show him when he arrived in Luca. She was so distracted by it than when she was using the welding torch, she didn't notice that sparks were landing on her design book, causing it to catch fire.

Yuna was thinking about all the helpful things she could do to help him fit in and whether or not she should draw him a map of the school to ensure that he didn't get lost. Her Yevonite Studies teacher wasn't impressed when she answered that Yevon's only child was called Rikku's new brother.

And Lulu? During Theory of Black Magic, a dull class at best, she was wondering why on Spira social services would let Cid look after his own children, let alone someone else's. The poor boy had no idea what he'd signed up for.

She felt sorry for him. Almost.

-------------------------

**AN **- So if you didn't know already, Tidus' name is pronounced Tee-dus, not Tie-dus. That's beacause in Japanese, i is most of the time pronounced as an e, and e is pronounced like an a. Tidus' voice actor said in an interview that the pronounciation of his character's name was the first thing they told him. Remember, all reviews are welcome, even if it's just ' I like it' or 'good'.


	3. Chapter 3 New Beginnings

_**Disclaimer -**_** I do not own Final Fantasy X-2, any of it's characters or anything to do with Square-Enix. If I did, I don't think I'd need to still be in school. **

So like after an eternity she finally updates. Yeah, I'm sorry to anyone who reads this story and has been waiting for an update but basically my computer got a virus and wiped out all my files, and seeing as I'm terrible at IT I hadn't bothered to back them up. Then my computer was doing weird things and I haven't been able to sort it out 'till now. So I'll try to update the next chapter at a reasonable time ( strong emphasis on the word try) and I hope you like this chapter._Jess X_

**Chapter 3**

**New Beginnings **

The terminal at Zanarkand airport was bustling: packed with tourists; hoards of commuting business men; and groups of waiting relatives who erupted into squeals when reunited with their loved ones.

Zanarkand was the largest city in Spira, though it had only been rebuilt eight years ago, so it made sense that it would play host to the world's largest airport. Passengers only had a limited choice of three destinations at the moment, but at the rate towns were growing that looked set to change.

Proposals for an airport at Mushroom Rock were being drawn up and the city of Bevelle, which had only recently lifted a law forbidding the use of machina, had expressed interest in constructing an airport of its own.

A dark skinned woman dressed in a conservative grey suit strode across the linoleum floor to gaze at the check-in board, her onyx black hair swishing from side to side with every step. Her eyes scanned down the list until she found what she was looking for. The six am flight bound for Lord Braska Memorial Airport Luca was checking in at desk nine, which was now open. She pulled out a tube of gloss from her pocket and slicked it across her lips when a voice came from behind her.

"Jeez, I know Lord Braska was a good guy and all but seriously, just how many things are named after him?"

The woman turned around to give a questioning look at the tanned, azure eyed youth who was now yawning and his leant across their luggage trolley. Perhaps someone shouldn't have gone to bed so late when he knew he'd have a three am wake up call.

"Lord Braska," she began, "was not just a good guy, he was a great man. He defeated Sin once and for all, so he'll forever have a place in the hearts of Spira's people. Do you not remember what it was like, living in fear of Sin all the time?"

The boy suddenly gained an extreme interest in inspecting the stitching on his shoes, so didn't look at her as he mumbled his reply.

"No, I don't. I was kinda preoccupied with living in fear of something else."

She gasped and shook her head as she realised the mistake she had made.

"I'm sorry Tidus. That was incredibly tactless of me. I didn't mean it i-"

"I know," he interrupted. "It's okay Kelani. Now, let's go check in shall we?"

He didn't wait for an answer, just spun around and headed towards the rapidly growing queue with the trolley, leaving Kelani standing in front of the check-in board wishing she'd just kept her mouth shut.

-------------------

To describe Rikku's bedroom as messy was a bit of an understatement. One could spend eternity looking for a needle in it and you would still never find it.

Mountains of spare machina parts were dotted across the room, the carpet buried beneath a blanket of clothes, paper and UDOs (unidentified dusty objects), whilst breeding grounds for the increasingly endangered dust mite could be found in the corners.

The moonlight could change all of this though, transforming the chaotic bombsite of a bedroom into an almost serene silhouetted scene. Until you either walked into something, or the alarm clock goes off that is.

Rikku blindly felt around for the clock, hit the snooze button with all the strength she could muster, before snuggling back down beneath the covers into the comfy haven of her bed.

It was so cosy and warm. She didn't understand why some people never had lie-ins and willingly got up at the crack of dawn. Her bed was probably her favourite place in all of Spira and nothing could keep them apart.

Still, it was odd that she'd set her alarm clock on a Sunday. She sat up and wearily blinked several times before glancing at it. Rikku wasn't sure if what she read was true or if her sleepiness was playing tricks in her. There was no other rational explanation as to why she'd set her alarm for five am on a Sunday morning.

Dismissing it as a very unfunny joke of Brother's, she slid further under her duvet, desperate to stay safe and hidden. It was only then that she remembered.

The entire street would be grateful for their own personal alarm clock, the alarm being Rikku's jubilant cry of, "I'm getting a new brother today!"

--------------

Kelani watched Tidus as he flicked through a blitzball magazine that he'd bought in the duty free shop. They hadn't spoken since check in, just the occasional 'okay' and 'sure' and Kelani's scolding at him for choosing to wear such an impractical outfit.

Tidus didn't really see what the problem was. His outfit fit him and he looked cool in it. And sure, it took him five minutes to remove all his jewellery and metal decorations from his outfit when they passed through security and another five to put them all on again, but it's not like everyone in the queue was in a rush. Flights were nearly always delayed, so really he was doing them a favour by reducing the amount of time they'd have to spend waiting in the departure lounge.

Kelani sighed once again reached inside her pocket for her lip gloss. It was becoming a habit of hers and an expensive one at that. At the rate she was going now, she'd have to buy a new tube as soon as they arrived in Luca. As soon as the gloss touched her lip, the screens in the lounge changed to announce that first class was now ready for boarding.

"Lucky sods," muttered Tidus as he skim-read an interview with Bickson of the Luca Goers.

Kelani smiled as she stood up.

"Well I guess we're a pair of lucky sods then."

He glanced up at her with a slightly confused expression that clearly showed what he was thinking.

"You're not the only one who enjoys travelling in style Tidus. Once I've delivered you to your new family my holiday starts and I'm going to visit my family in Kilika. I thought that perhaps this once I may as well treat myself so I did. Come on, two first class seats await us."

He hastily shoved the magazine into his navy back-pack before leaping onto his feet with a grin on his face.

"Kelani, you are the most awesome social worker in all of Spira!"

"I know," she said, her face mirroring his. "I know."

------------------

"Thank you. Come back and visit real soon."

Rikku loved her job. She worked on Sundays and Wednesdays after school in Machina Mania, a specialist Machina store in the newly opened Lord Braska Memorial Mall on Luca's waterfront. The shop itself was a messy mixture of flashing lights, whirring, beeping and hands on display where customers could play with the latest machina toys. It was the type of place that drove Paine crazy, which was one of the reasons from a list of many than Rikku liked it so much.

"Hey Cid's girl. Nice uniform you got there."

The regulation friendly, approachable smile that was glued on her face nearly slid off at the sound of his voice. She puffed out her chest to make sure that her name tag (Rikku, sales assistant) was clearly visible before asking in the regulation friendly, approachable voice, "Hi there. How may I help you?"

Gippal smirked and propped himself up with his elbow on the counter. It was odd seeing Rikku like this, dressed in a riot of fluorescent fabrics but with the most anaemic smile he'd seen on anyone other than Lulu or Paine plastered on her face.

It didn't feel right. She wasn't Rikku-y enough.

"Well, you see," he started, "I'm working on a sort of secret project, and i need some lightweight but fairly powerful turbo engines. I've looked everywhere and couldn't find any, and then I remembered about this place."

She appeared to be in deep thought for a moment, not a look her saw very often from her, before inquiring in a mock-suspicious voice, "You wouldn't happen to be trying to build a hover board by any chance?"

His answer of silence told her everything.

"'Cause Dr.P mentioned the other day that she saw you go into The Surf Shack which I thought was strange 'cause you never go surfing. Which is pretty understandable really, giving what happened on Bikanel a few years ago with the body boards and the piranhas?"

Gippal glared at her with his visible eye.

"They weren't piranhas. I was attacked by Sahagins."

She shook her head.

"Nuh-uh. They were piranhas."

"Sahagins."

"Piranhas."

"Fine, I was attacked by piranhas. Now can we please get back to what I came in here for, the turbo engines?"

He was greeted by the sight of Rikku's tiny rose tongue, and found himself sticking his out in return. She giggled.

"Well, the ones I'd recommend are the Van-Dyke mini-turbos. Relatively light, top speed of around forty-five mph and cost 2159 gil each. In fact, they're so good that we're out of stock right now. D'you wanna place an order?"

"Sure. Sounds good to me," he replied, so she bent under the counter to retrieve the order forms and managed to surprise herself by not banging her head as she came back up.

"You need to sign here," Rikku informed him and passed him the pen.

Gippal wasn't entirely sure why he did it, but instead of just simply taking the pen, he reached out for her hand as well. He heard the sharp intake of breath and saw that the semi-permanent smile that she had previously been wearing was now gone. As though his hands had been scolded by one of Lulu's firage spells he snatched his hand away, before hurriedly scribbling his scrawled nearly italic signature.

She grabbed the form and questioned him in a higher pitched voice that usual, "Is that all?"

"Oh, yeah, I think so."

"Well then, thank you. Come back and visit real soon."

"Will do," he said as he strolled out the shop. "Catch you tomorrow ... Rikku."

It was the first time in a while that either of them could remember that he had said good-bye without calling her Cid's girl.

-----------------------------

"So...," said Tidus in a feeble attempt to start a conversation.

Sure, he loved travelling in first class but when you've already seen the in-flight movie three times and the gorgeous air hostess has left you to serve drinks to some Bevellian bank managers you can become quite bored.

You can't even kick the chair of the person sat in front of you, firstly because it's not socially acceptable in premier class, and secondly because there's so much leg room you can't even reach the seat in front of you. Even the view from the window wasn't entertaining. When you've seen one ocean from an airship window you've seen them all.

"What's my family like then? I didn't really listen to Omar when he told me. I guess I was too excited to be finally getting out of that place."

Kelani sipped some of her orange juice and turned off her personal sphere player on which she'd been watching the in-flight movie. This was one of the numerous things she'd learnt as a social worker. Get rid of any distractions if you want to give the child the impression that you actually care and are willing to listen to them.

"Well first of all, they're Al Bhed." She expected to see a slight change of expression from him but there was nothing. "You don't have a problem with that, do you?"

He laughed.

"Of course not. I just spent the last three years in a care home full of Al Bhed kids, so it's not likely that I'm gonna hate the rest of their race is it?"

"I guess not. The father, Cid, is an important figure in Al Bhed politics, so the family is quite well off. He has a son who is older than you, and a fifteen year old daughter. I hope you'll be a good role model for her," she said with her lips set in a firm line. Tidus wasn't sure if she was joking or not.

"If he already has two kids," he began, "why does he want to foster me?"

Kelani took another sip of her drink. If it wasn't prohibited she would have just flung the family's file over in his direction. Instead, she'd just have to be content with telling him all she knew.

"The daughter, Rikku I think her name is, always wanted to have more siblings. Sadly, their mother died shortly after Rikku was born."

"Sin?" he asked, his voice barely louder than a whisper.

She nodded.

"I think you'll find you fit in very well with this family, and you might want to speak to their cousin too."

"Their cousin?"

"Yes. Their cousin spends a lot of time with the family," she told Tidus. "And she has a guardian. You might be able to relate to her quite a bit.

He began to reply before being interrupted by the pilot's announcement that they were about to prepare for the landing in Luca.

"Well," he said as he fastened his seat belt.," I guess this is it. Whole new

chapter of my life is about to start."

"You sure you're ready?" Kelani asked whilst tightening her seatbelt one last time.

"As ready as I'll ever be."

And with those words, the airship slowly began its descent.

---------------------------

**AN** - I know I don't deserve it for being a really bad updater but reviews would be greatly appreciated. _Jess X_


	4. Chapter 4 Recipes for Disaster

_**Disclaimer -**_** I do not own Final Fantasy X-2, any of it's characters or anything to do with Square-Enix. If I did, I don't think I'd need to still be in school.**

See what happens when you give me lots of lovely reviews. I'm actually amazed that I got this up so quickly, and it would have been up sooner if it wasn't for that technical glitch thing. Anyways this is my longest chapter yet, so thanks to all those people who reviewed: Yuna of Besaid, Paine jnr, bradj4eva, thepiratejilt, Gamerof1458 and Kahoko. You guys rock and your words and opinion matter a lot to me. Hope you enjoy this chapter._ Jess X_

**Chapter 4 **

**Recipes for Disaster **

Brother rolled out of bed, literally, at his normal time of 12.37 pm exactly. After picking himself off the faded once-blue-now-sludge-coloured carpet he blindly felt around for the nearest t-shirt, from the many that were permanently strewn across the floor, yanked it over his head and blundered downstairs for a late breakfast or on-time lunch depending on how you looked at it.

A handful of granola, three cookies, half bread roll and a swig of orange juice straight from the carton later, he was sitting at the breakfast bar trying to understand why so many people seemed to be almost afraid to talk to him for more than a few minutes.

His brain soon gave up the extremely difficult, strenuous task and it was only when his spiralled eyes began to wander that he noticed the acid green post-it note covered in glittery pink writing stuck to the fridge's otherwise empty door.

He sprung from his seat on the high-stool and dashed for the fridge. But being Brother he, of course, forgot to stop and proceeded to collide with the fridge and then the cool floor tiles seconds later. With some effort and a constant chant of the word 'cred', he managed to pull himself to his feet, enabling him to read his sister's rushed Al Bhed script.

_Brother_, it began, _here is a list of things to do before our new brother arrives. _

He frowned. Since when we they getting a new brother?

_1 – hoover the living room and the spare bedroom_

_2 – tidy and clean the spare bedroom._

_3 – make the rest of the house look liveable _

_4 – practice speaking Spiran_

_5 – learn how to act normal _

Brother was a bit upset about the last two. Yuna had been helping him with his speaking and according to her, he'd made tremendous progress. And as for being normal, well he was, wasn't he?

To be honest, he wasn't entirely sure if there was such a thing as normality. If he was cleverer he would have been able to explain why. That nothing can ever be normal because everything is constantly changing, and that people only try to be normal so they can easily fit it and not have their fears of alienation realised.

But he couldn't as his brain cells were few and far between so his mental capacity wasn't great enough. He would just have to settle for being unsure, which wasn't that bad of a place to be.

Brother turned around with what he believed to be a serious expression on his face, ready to do some major housework. If only he could remember what the hoover looked like.

--------------------------

The first thing to enter Paine's line of vision after roughly pushing open the door to the bookshop was her cousin staring at her with one eyebrow raised in a questioning manner. She chose to ignore Lulu as the guys trooped in after her and immediately headed over to their preferred genres.

Bararlai briskly walked towards the crime and mystery section and quickly began scanning the spines for any titles that piqued his interest. She knew that he loved nothing more than to hide in his room with a book, trying desperately to solve the mystery before he finished reading the first hundred pages.

Gippal had sauntered to the back of the shop, where the non-fiction books were kept, no doubt to find yet another machina repair manual that he really didn't need. For the first few days after his purchase he would bore her, Nooj and Baralai with useless chucks of information about gears and clutches. Inevitably though, he'd begin to resent the author for implying that they were a better mechanic than he was, so the manual would join the masses already shoved underneath his bed. Basically, other mechanic's work and Gippal's ego did not mix, at all.

And she definitely knew where Nooj would be. He was either in the biographies section looking for the life story of his latest political hero, or browsing through the history books, searching for the ones about the most recently uncovered secret Yevon had hidden from the rest of Spira.

Paine almost stepped back in shock when she glanced over at both sections only to find him nowhere to be seen. Ignoring Lulu's watchful gaze, she started to silently stalk through the bookshelves to hunt for Nooj. She eventually found him in the one area no males should ever venture into. She had to blink several times with her scarlet eyes to make sure she wasn't seeing things.

There Nooj was, standing in the middle of the romance novels section, glasses in the precarious position of almost slipping off his nose as he carefully read the blurb of a book entitled, 'Sugar, Spice and Things Not so Nice'. The name alone was enough to make Paine inwardly retch but the cover of pink frosted cupcakes balancing on a woman's stomach as a man tried to eat them, really did the trick.

She opened her moth, but instead of actual vomit pouring out, word vomit appeared.

"What the fuck are you doing here?"

His eyes flicked up and he looked mildly surprised at her choice of words before answering in his usual stoic voice, "I'm looking for a present for Leblanc. Care to help me?"

"I don't waste my time reading crap like that," she informed him bitterly, before turning swiftly on her heel and marching back to the entrance and the pay desk.

The corners of Lulu's plum painted lips quirked upwards when she spotted Paine returning, scowl and all. Her mouth almost transformed into a fully fledged smile as her cousin muttered something about Nooj needing assistance in selecting a romance novel for his girlfriend. Of course, Lulu was willing to help. She always was, as long as the right price was paid.

Paine's scowl became a glower as she named her price, but she obediently walked around the desk to go behind the counter and stood in front of the till, ready for action.

"Behave," Lulu warned her and promptly vanished out of Paine's sight.

She sighed and peered down at the ridiculous array of buttons on the cash register; so many things for such a mundane job. The situation was made even better when the next customer who was ready to pay thought he'd be original and stupidly, or bravely as some may think of it, uttered the words, "Cheer up love, it might never happen."

Lulu returned, with Nooj in tow, just in time to see her cousin slam the door behind her as she exited the shop, the receipt on the till telling her the previous customer had been charged 15% more than he should have.

-----------------

The tray laden with Rikku's lunch fell to the food court's floor with a clatter as she screamed in surprise, the newly acquired portable commsphere vibrating in her pocket. After two weeks, she still hadn't grown accustom to the odd sensation as the thing all but tickled to announce that she had an incoming call.

She hurriedly bent down to scoop up her lunch but left the pot of dark cherry pro-biotic yoghurt where it was. The pot had split and its mauve coloured contents were oozing out onto the floor; there was no way Rikku was licking it off the tiles. She might not be the best behaved girl in Luca but she still had some manners at least.

Smiling sheepishly at the cleaning attendant who was giving her a very thorough dose of the evil eye, she scrambled over to the nearest free table, put down her tray, pulled out the commsphere and tried to avoid the sniggers coming from the other diners.

"Rikku!"

Brother's face filled the screen, bewildered expression and all. She could already tell from the tone of his voice that whatever he had to say was not going to be good.

"What is it this time Brother?" she asked slightly impatiently in Al Bhed and then began eating her behemoth burger.

"Well, I found the hoover," he said proudly. He must have been expecting to receive a medal or something, because he didn't say another word until she prompted him with, "And?" food still in her mouth. That was one of the few good things about talking to Brother. You could forget about all the courtesies and manners.

"So I found it, but I'm not sure how to turn it on."

Rikku blinked quickly for a few seconds, shocked at the revelation that her brother might actually be dumber that she originally thought. But being the lovely little sister she was, she smiled before beginning to explain how to use the hoover in what she hoped was not a patronising voice. Not that he would notice anyway.

"Right, first thing you do is stick the plug, the thing on the end of the wire, into the nearest plug socket. You can do that, right?"

"Of course I can," he replied and disappeared from view. Some banging sounds, grunts and cries of the Al Bhed word for 'fit' could be heard though, before a rather ashamed looking Brother returned.

"It won't fit," he admitted sheepishly.

She rolled her eyes. "Did you take the plastic cover off it first?"

He obviously hadn't as he moved out of sight once again. This time he came back with a triumphant grin on his face as he told her, "It fits!"

"Yay!" she squealed with mostly fake enthusiasm. She wasn't that impressed but was glad to know that he wasn't a complete imbecile. He was just an imbecile.

"Now all you've got to do is press the on button and away you go. Easy as pie!"

"Okay," he said, rather nervously and cautiously reached for the button.

Rikku was the one who normally did the hoovering in their house, so she was used to the noise that a vacuum cleaner makes. Brother evidently wasn't, as when the hoover roared to life, he jumped backwards with a yelp into the table where his commsphere lay, knocking it to the floor and causing the connection to be broken.

She sat still in disbelief, her burger held half way to her mouth. She put it down and then proceeded to do the first thing that entered her mind.

With all the dignity she could muster up, Rikku head planted the table and muttered to her food and the surrounding furniture, "Please, just kill me now."

-------------------------

Yuna quietly observed herself in the mirror and silently debated in her head whether or not she should wear make-up to her new cousin's welcoming dinner later on that evening.

On one hand, she should as to give a good first impression. The boy would probably be anxious about settling in, so a pretty, well made up face might give him a faint sense of normality. It was also a special dinner and she hardly ever bothered with cosmetics. This would be the perfect opportunity to try out a whole new look, to reinvent herself a little.

However, there were also the things on the other hand. There always was another hand, and as usual the other hand held a lot more things in its palm than the previous.

First, there was the slight problem that she was cooking tonight's meal. A steam filled kitchen and make-up would not mix well, resulting in a Yuna caked in semi-melted face-paint which was a look that would almost certainly send the poor boy running back to Zanarkand.

Secondly, there was the possibility that Rikku might somehow get the wrong end of the stick and think that she was all dolled up in a bid to impress the boy. The idea was so mortifying to Yuna that she blushed, envisioning the weeks of teasing, sly winks; sharp nudges, and child like torture she would have to endure.

And lastly, there was the harsh but true reality that she couldn't tell the difference between an eye liner pencil and an eyebrow pencil.

She paused to watch her reflections again, her mirror twin slightly flushed. She stood up and padded across the cream shag pile to her wardrobe, which she began rummaging through to find last year's birthday presents.

For her sixteenth birthday, her girlfriends had apparently adopted a present theme – make-up.

Lulu had given her a book about home beauty treatments and how easily left over ingredients in the kitchen could be turned into natural, home-made lip balm. It wasn't much of a shock to Yuna that she'd received a book from Lulu. Lulu liked to give books as presents since she got a half price discount on all books at the store where she worked. She was a saver, not a splurger.

Rikku had bestowed her with the gift of a huge vanity case, filled to the brim with powders and pencils, glosses and lipsticks. Half of what it contained still remained a mystery to Yuna. The case didn't often see the world beyond the back of her wardrobe.

Paine had simply rolled her eyes when Rikku's present was unwrapped form its

cartoon chocobo covered gift paper.

"Forget about all the crap in there," she'd told Yuna with a hint of assertiveness in her voice. "This is all you'll ever need."

Yuna had hastily torn open the gift wrap to reveal three kohl pencils in shades of black, ebony velvet and charcoal. She's tried to make her words of gratitude as sincere and convincing as possible.

After finding what she was looking for, she returned to her dressing table and started to examine the many things the vanity case contained. Her fingers fiddled with the pots and tubes, checking the colours and names until she came across one that she recognised. It was a bright red lipstick named 'Rose Passion. It was one of Rikku's favourites and transformed her usual pale pink upper lip into a sexy scarlet cupids bow.

Swivelling on her stool to face the mirror, Yuna tried smiling like she'd seen other women do and applied the lipstick, eager to see if it would work wonders for her like it did for her cousin. The results were not what she would have liked.

The person looking back at her from in the mirror did not look confident, sexy or interesting. They looked like a toddler who had just eaten and entire pot of strawberry jam.

Frustrated and upset, she threw the lipstick across the room, tugged at a tissue from the box on the dressing table and began to forcefully rub the mess off when a knock came from door.

"Just a minute," she called out, voice slightly muffled because of the tissue. There was no way she wanted anyone seeing her like this.

"It's only me," announced Lulu, opening the door and gliding into the bedroom with a swish of her long black skirt.

She soon stopped in her tracks though, after spotting the lipstick on the floor and seeing Yuna's face, with smudgy red-rimmed lips and eyes that threatened to burst into tears. The book she held was dropped onto the bed and she sat down next to her friend, taking the tissue from her and beginning to dab at her face.

"Yuna, there's no need to get so worked up over something as trivial as make-up."

Yuna sniffed. "I know, I know. It's just, I feel so pathetic sometimes. You, Rikku and Paine all wear make-up and I don't and I just feel left out sometimes, y'know. And then when I try to wear it, it turns into a bigger disaster than Operation Mi'ihen."

"We all make mistakes sometimes, so there's no need to beat yourself up over this. You just need practice, that's all," Lulu told her. "The recipe book you wanted is on your bed, by the way."

"Thank you."

"So, what sort of look were you aiming for?"

Yuna's eyes quickly narrowed. "Why? You wouldn't want to give me a makeover would you, seeing as you know it's my most hated form of torture?"

"Of course I do," her friend replied, smiling as Yuna's eyes widened. "Now, stay still and let me work my magic.

--------------------------------

"Wow!" exclaimed Tidus as the hover-taxi pulled up outside his new home. "I know you said they're well off Kelani, but you I think you forgot to mention that they're loaded!"

Kelani was busy paying the driver, trying to calculate the tip required for a journey that cost 659 gil, so she didn't share the initial rush of excitement that Tidus had. However, when she stepped out of the hover, she did gasp at the sight that lay in front of her.

The house was located to the south-west of Luca, just outside of the city limits. It was alone on a lane and stood on a cliff top over-looking the sea, and a small path next to it led down to the beach found at the cliff's foot. Palm trees were scattered about the lane and citrus coloured tropical flowers lay dotted around the outside of the house.

The building itself was a mixture of old and new. Three stories high and equally as wide, it was constructed from mostly milk white brick but also had several panelled sections made from rescued driftwood, a sort of tribute to its surroundings. The windows were shop shiny and paired with cerulean shutters that matched the sea. It was unique, but not in an in-your-face kind of way, and stood out from yet matched with the nearby landscape. All in all, it was a great work of architecture.

"Scared?" Kelani asked, the gravel of the front drive crunching underfoot.

He scoffed. "As if. I've already been through this loads of times before. I think I know the drill by now."

"True, but not with a loaded Al Bhed family who live in Luca rather than Zanarkand."

He shrugged and they reached the door.

"Ready?" she enquired, but the only reply she got was Tidus quickly pressing the doorbell.

A shout came from inside, followed by what sounded like someone crashing about in the dark, before the door was thrown open by a young man with an unruly mohican, dressed in a pair of sweatpants and a 'My Little Chocobo' t-shirt.

"Hello?" the man said with an accent that immediately told the pair of visitors that Spiran wasn't his first language.

Kelani made the first move seeing as Tidus appeared incapable of doing anything other than stare at the man like he was an exhibit in a travelling freak show.

"Hello, nice to meet you," she told the man with a smile whilst shaking his rather sweaty hand. " My name is Kelani and I'm from the SSS, Spiran Social Services. I'm here to deliver to you the newest member of your family, Tidus. Is there any chance that I could speak to Cid please?"

The man stood still for a while, trying to absorb everything she had just said before informing her that, " Cid out. Busy, busy man. Only me here. Brother."

"Well," began Kelani, desperately trying not to let her smile fall of her face, " I'll

just have to ask you to tell Cid to call this commsphere number." She handed Brother a business card before continuing. "And you'll have to sign this."

He looked down blankly at the form then took it and the pen from her and printed his name in childlike Spiran letters.

"Thank you. I have to go now. I hope you like it here Tidus, try not to get into too much trouble. Please don't forget to tell Cid to call me. Bye."

And with one last wave, Kelani walked down the driveway, leaving Tidus alone with his new brother, Brother.

"So ... you're Al Bhed, right?" he said, attempting not to let the slight sound fear in his voice be heard.

Brother turned to face him with his hands on his hips. "Yes, but that no matter now. You come with me."

Before Tidus could protest, his new sibling grabbed hold of his suitcase with one hand and his hand with the other and dragged them into the house. Once they were inside, Brother let go, sending both the case and the boy crashing to the carpeted floor.

Spitting a piece of fluff out of his mouth, Tidus gazed upwards to find his brother peering down at him with a deranged smile upon his face.

"Oh yes. You is going to love it here, you is."

The only thing Tidus could think of as he dragged himself to his feet was yes. Yes he definitely was.

----------------------

AN - So I might not update for a while because I have actual proper GCSE exams coming up very soon, first one is on Wednesday (Yikes). But if I receive some more reviews I might consider using my study break for writing instead of relaxing. Thanks for reading.


	5. Chapter 5 Dates of a NonRomantic Kind

**_Disclaimer -_ I do not own Final Fantasy X-2, any of it's characters or anything to do with Square-Enix. If I did, I don't think I'd need to still be in school. **

I'm back, seems like I'm making a habit of updating once a month or so. I'm actually pretty shocked at the length of this chapter, seeing as I had a really bad case of writers block with it. And thanks again to all my lovely reviewers: Kahoko, thepiratejilt, Jasper'sSouthernGal(the north is better) and Yuniie, what you say is very much appreciated. Just if your wondering, my exams went okay, at least I think they did. Thanks to everyone who wished me luck. Enjoy._ Jess X_

_**Chapter 5**_

**Dates of a Non-Romantic Kind**

It is never really a good idea to wear flimsy footwear, such as flip-flops, when you know you have a lot of walking to do, even if it happens to be a gorgeously sunny day.

This was the lesson that Rikku learnt as she grudgingly trekked down the clifftop path at the end of which stood her house. Seagulls were swooping about high above her head, the sea breeze tickling her hair, causing her braids to narrowly avoid whacking her in the face, and she could tell that several blisters had appeared on her feet; she could feel them throbbing uncomfortably.

She had no-one to blame but herself.

Rikku enjoyed experimenting with fashion; it was exactly like mixing items together, only less dangerous and much more easily done. Her rather eccentric style often earned her stares and whispers from passers by, but she'd leant to ignore it. Individuality was something Rikku thrived on.

However, not everyone approved of her… uniqueness. Since joining the part-time staff at Machina Mania, the employees dress code had been rewritten several times to add five new clauses, explicitly banning: hot-pants; steel armoured boots; samurai robes; and four inch high stilettos amongst other things. She had briefly considered giving up and succumbing to monotony, but had quickly chosen not to. Without variation and the ability to express herself she'd slowly die.

After about ten minutes of walking at an increasingly slower place, she arrived at her destination, only to be greeted by a site of sheer hideousness, she almost didn't want to look.

Through the glass of the medium sized downstairs window of the living room, she saw Brother saying something to an unfamiliar boy who's hair looked rather like a wild roaming chocobo's coat of feathers. She didn't even think about who it might be; all Rikku saw was the look of horror on his face which was enough to set off the warning sirens in her head, wailing, 'Get him out of there!"

She stretched out to reach for the door handle when her bag began to shake violently, most likely caused by her commsphere vibrating. Things like this happened a lot to Rikku. Instead of landing herself in trouble like most people did by being the wrong place at the wrong time, she managed to be in the

right place at the right time, just the wrong things always seemed to occur.

As she rummaged through the masses of junk she had accumulated in her bag, she couldn't help but feel like this was one of those times.

"What!" she yelled at the small sphere, impatience apparently having taken over completely.

"Well that's a fine way to say hello."

Of course, the call just had to be from her, didn't it?

"I don't have time for this right now Dr.P. I'm about to conduct a highly dangerous rescue mission that involves saving a guy who I think is my new brother from Brother's evil clutches, and I need to be concentrating."

On screen, Paine muttered something that sounded suspiciously like, "Well that'd be a first," before saying, " A new brother? I didn't realise you were that desperate to die."

Rikku stuck out her tongue as her way of replying.

"So could you please hurry up and say whatever you called for, 'cause by the looks of things, possibly-my-new-brother-guy has only minutes left to live."

"Fine," said Paine. " I'll explain very s-l-o-w-l-y."

Rikku glared at the commsphere in her hand.

"Please Paine," she pleaded. "This is a serious matter of life or death here.

Rolling her eyes and sighing, Paine appeared to give in.

"Great, go ahead and ruin my fun why don't you. Okay, basically Yuna called and she quite worried about your little dinner party thing tonight. Lulu attacked her with the war-paint and now Yuna's scared she'll look stupid, so she asked me to ask you if you and Brother will get dressed up a bit."

"Why didn't she just call my house?" Rikku demanded, visibly worried about the fate of her could be brother.

Paine simply raised her eyebrows and looked at her intently, as if she were trying to send Rikku the answer telepathically.

"Oh, right. Brother."

Rikku inwardly cringed at the thought of what would happen if Brother answered one of Yuna's commsphere calls. It was no secret that he had an unhealthy obsession for his cousin that freaked out nearly everyone he knew. His family were relieved though that Yuna was naïve enough to remain oblivious to his longing for her, and glad that Brother hadn't yet read any documents that listed the Al Bhed laws. The day Brother discovered marriages between first cousins were still legal under Al Bhed law, Rikku was going into hiding and wasn't planning on returning anytime soon.

"Well, good luck with your saving thing. If you die, don't expect me to cry at your funeral," Paine gladly informed her with a smile.

"Aw, I know you'll secretly cry buckets over me," said Rikku, before switching off the commsphere with a, "Bye".

Now, back to that rescue mission.

---------------------------

Lulu liked living alone. A quiet existence was the life for her she decided as she made her way home through the packed streets of central Luca. Lulu rented a flat that was located fairly close to the city's main leisure district, which included the blitzball stadium and the sphere theatre, so as a result the surrounding streets were constantly packed with tourists and locals alike.

Being eighteen had it's advantages, she couldn't deny that, but there was still something about officially being an adult that was just plain scary. Only six months left until she was out of school forever, leaving the classrooms and textbooks behind, ready to enter the real world. It was a frightening thought; she had no idea what she wanted to do and unless she won the lottery anytime soon, there was absolutely no chance of her having the opportunity to attend university. Still, she had to make the most of it and she was, staying in her own flat and earning money by working several shifts in a bookshop. It wasn't the most glamorous of existence but it was a way of living, and to Lulu, that was all that mattered, for now at least.

Trying hard not to bump into anyone as she pushed past a mother who's son was clamouring to see a blitzball game, she walked for a few more minutes before turning right into the road where she lived.

It was a short, dark street, one that you wouldn't venture down unless you were lost and it certainly wasn't somewhere you'd like to be after sunset. Running along either side were many shops with worn facades, their windows displaying unusual antique objects, and they were the type of stores you longed to explore but for some reason or other never got round to.

Above one of these shops was Lulu's flat, an apothecary run by a group of Hypellos to be precise, so the smell of whatever concoction was brewing often permeated the entire building. Having lived there for just under five months, she had grown accustom to the peculiar aromas, but her friends hadn't.

Only a few weeks ago the store had been brewing vast amounts of a potion that emitted jade coloured fumes. The odour had been foul, so bad that it put a Malboro's breath to shame, and by midday when Rikku came to visit, it was verging on unbearable.

Neither girl was entirely sure about what had happened next. All Lulu could remember was that before she went to the bathroom, Rikku was fine, chomping away at a cookie and noisily slurping a cup of tea. When she returned though, Rikku was lying on the floor, close to being unconscious, engulfed by the fumes, and muttering something incomprehensible like, "No fair! I wanted to be the tonberry!" Needless to say, Rikku wasn't in a hurry to pop round anytime soon.

Lulu was about to thrust her key into the battered lock when she spotted a piece of paper pinned to the solid oak door. A day of work and a counselling session/makeover with Yuna had all but ground down her patience, so the note was torn off and read within seconds.

_Lu', _it said in bold, black letters. _They've set a date for the big day. Call me A.S.A.P. Wakka. _

She felt herself blanch, her already pale skin turning apple white and hastily unlocked the flat's door. Letting her bag simply drop to the floor, she dashed through the rooms she rented, urgently needing to reach the bathroom. It was a scarce event for Lulu to be sick, but she knew, an instinct told her, that this was going to be one of those times.

Whilst retching over the toilet bowl she asked one question to herself. What had she done to deserve this?

---------------------------

"This is kitchen. In kitchen, there is lots of things. This things is a… a…"

"A refrigerator," prompted Tidus.

"Yes, a frigerator. You is very clever blond boy. Now, this is a… a toaster. You put bread in like this, press down this, and out come bread. Clever, yeah?"

Brother was proudly giving Tidus a tour of the family home. So far they had covered the living room, the downstairs bathroom, the dining room, and were currently in the kitchen, where he was revelling in the chance to show Tidus his knowledge of utensils and appliances. He didn't seem to notice the pained look on the boy's face, as if every word uttered from his mouth was slowly killing him.

The kettle was right next to his left hand, so he made up his mind and started to demonstrate how to boil water. However, just as he began to fill it up, he heard the front door fly open with a crash.

"Step away from him you idiot! Can't you see your stupidness is hurting him!" a menacing voice shouted at him in Al Bhed

Brother dropped the kettle, soaking himself and the surrounding counter-tops in cold water, before doing as the voice said and backed away to cower behind the breakfast bar. Whoever the voice belonged to, they didn't seem to like him very much.

From his hiding place, he peered round the side too see Rikku bound into the kitchen dressed in her wacky work uniform. She smiled at their new brother, shook his hand and they quickly started talking. She even made him laugh. Brother attempted to listen to what they were saying but his lack of understanding of the Spiran language, not to mention the water in his ears, made it difficult.

He watched as Rikku hugged the boy, grabbed his hand and led him out of the kitchen. Footsteps and sounds from upstairs followed moments later, allowing Brother to guess that she was showing him his new room. Why hadn't he thought of that earlier?

He sighed and let himself slide onto the wet floor tiles, his shirt becoming even more damp than before. What was the point in trying to be friendly when all people did was stare at you like you were a freak? He tried to be nice, he truly did, but for some reason everybody seemed to be scared of him. No, that wasn't true. There was a person who liked him, she really did.

He grinned, remembering, and then jumped to his feet. Yuna was coming over later and that was more than enough to persuade him to change into something a bit more … classy.

-------------------------------

Wakka was not a patient person. He hated waiting, no loathed, detested, despised it. He had already performed his entire list of things to do whilst waiting for a call, and he was now precariously balancing on the edge of being bored, and being totally bored.

For fifteen minutes he had sat on his tatty, brown, suede sofa, twiddling his thumbs and whistling to himself. Another fifteen minutes had been spent pacing around his living room and coming to the conclusion that some tidying up was seriously needed. Twenty minutes had been passed by re-gelling his hair, leaving it in a perfect, if not bizarre quiff, though his hands had to be washed for several minutes afterwards to rid them of excess gel. As a last resort he had attempted to complete today's crossword in the newspaper but soon gave up after glancing at the clues - 2 down, eleven letters, _After who is the Mi'ihen Highroad named? _

Now sitting on the stripped wooden floor with his back resting against the couch, Wakka was very bored, so bored that he would have probably fallen asleep if his commsphere hadn't have beeped at that exact moment.

Ambling over and praying that the call was from her, he proceeded to press the necessary buttons to establish a connection. He grinned when Lulu's face appeared because it meant that his wait was over, though it soon vanished as he took in the sight of her.

With pasty looking skin, puffy eyes and a pitiful excuse for a smile, Lulu looked like she had been told she had just under a month to live: shaken; dejected and thoroughly defeated.

"Lu', you sure you're o-"

"I'm fine Wakka," she snapped, clearly not happy with the state that she was in. "I'm just a little… surprised, that's all. I'd almost completely forgotten about it."

He could understand that; he'd managed to forget a few months after it happened but then he had spotted _him _and everything had suddenly hurtled back at him to slap him right in the face. It hurt sometimes, all these feelings rushing about inside his mind when he could barely keep up. It was like having a constant migraine, but much worse, as if a hundred scorpions were persistently plunging their tails into his brain.

"So, are you gonna come? I know you don't have to be there, but I could really do with some support, y'know," he asked, silently willing her to say yes.

Lulu looked away for a second, pursing her lips like she was mulling over the options inside her head.

"I think I will. It's what he would have wanted, isn't it?"

It was a rhetorical question, he knew that, but Wakka answered it anyway.

"Yeah, he would've." He paused before speaking very slowly at a barely audible level. "D'you think _he's_ gonna come?

She nodded and replied almost instantaneously.

"He has to. It can't take place if he doesn't show up."

"Well if he doesn't then I'm gonna -"

Wakka quickly demonstrated to Lulu just what he would do which involved a lot of knuckle cracking, left hooks and upcuts.

"And do you really think that he'd be happy? Proud of your violence? What good will it do Wakka?" she shrieked angrily.

He knew she was right and stared at the creaking floorboards as he mumbled, "I just hate him so much."

"I know," she told him, almost smiling sympathetically, "But he's not a bad person Wakkka, not really. I even helped him out at work today and -"

She stopped abruptly when she saw that Wakka was gazing at her with an incredulous expression of anger. Moments too late she realised she'd said the wrong thing, overstepped the mark, and all but destroyed the conversation.

"Bye Wakka," Lulu said slightly shakily and the connection was broken.

"Sleep well Lu'," he murmured, switching his own commsphere off before walking into the kitchen. One though and one though only was flying around in Wakka's head at that moment, and it was that he needed a very, very strong drink.

-------------------------

"Have fun Yuna. And don't forget, I'm working late tonight so Cid will have to drop you off back home. Make sure he doesn't have more than one glass of wine, okay?

"I will. Bye Auron," she called and waved at him from the driveway until the hover he was driving was out of sight.

She picked up the bag of ingredients and set off along the drive, licking her lips to check that the lip-gloss was still there. It was. Lulu had repeatedly told her not to, but she couldn't help it. It was just so tempting.

Nervous and hoping that Paine had done what she asked her to, Yuna reached the front door and rang the bell. She'd visited many times and had been told that she didn't need to bother with it, that the door was always open for her, yet she continued to wait to be greeted every time she came over. She wasn't too sure why she did it and dismissed it as just a habit, or as Paine eloquently put it, 'another one of her freaky perfectionist practices.'

The door opened and bathed her in light, which probably wasn't good for the large amount of make-up she was wearing, and Yuna was glad to see that Rikku was also wearing a dress, albeit a very short one. Sunshine yellow and with slits in the hem, she could have sworn she had seen Uncle Cid throw it out last year with his most twisted in disgust. She chose not to press the subject and instead complimented her cousin on how nice her hair looked down, with a scattering of flowers entwined in it.

"Thanks Yunie," Rikku replied, playing with one of the said flowers. "Come on in." She turned around and paused before facing Yuna again. "Actually, stay there for just a few more seconds."

She watched as Rikku walked along the hall, apparently struggling to walk in her pair of heels. She turned to face the spot where Yuna knew the stairs were and started to bellow.

"What did I tell you earlier! No looking! It's supposed to be like a surprise, so don't spoil it meanie!"

Somehow, Yuna knew Rikku wasn't hollering at Brother, and it wasn't just because she was speaking in Spiran. The voice that yelled back confirmed it.

"Aw, c'mon Rikku. One little peek wouldn't hurt, would it?"

The voice was like the male version of Rikku's; Yuna liked it immediately. It sounded as if it belonged to someone with the same sort of sunny disposition as her cousin, someone who enjoyed breaking rules but knew not to push the limits, and who was sure of themselves but not too arrogant. She didn't know you could learn so much about a person from simply hearing their voice, but she did now.

"Yes, it would," said Rikku, looking annoyed. " I've spent twenty whole minutes planning this and you're not gonna ruin it for me."

"But -"

"No buts. You're not officially a part of this family yet so you've got to do what I say, so get back upstairs and stop spying from the landing. I'm sure Brother will be happy to keep you company.

"Yeah, 'cause that'll cheer me up," the voice said sarcastically but it seemed to surrender because Rikku suddenly beamed at Yuna and she could hear footsteps leading away.

She looked back to her cousin who was gesturing at her to come in, so she stepped inside and shut the door, careful not to trap her dress in it. She moved quickly to catch up to Rikku who was already heading for the kitchen and asked the question that she was sure Rikku knew was coming.

"What was all that about?"

"Oh," Rikku said nonchalantly. "Well, Tidus, that's his name, has met everyone in the family now 'cept you, so I thought seeing as you're our guest and chef for the evening, you two shouldn't meet 'til we're ready to eat, leave it as a kinda surprise, y'know."

Yuna didn't know what she'd rather do. Stand still with her mouth wide open or strangle her cousin. She chose the first option as it was easier, and she was also a pacifist.

"You what?"

"Hey. It's a good idea Yunie, don't look so mad. I think Tidus has been kinda disappointed with his new relatives so far. Pops and Brother didn't really make great first impressions, so I wanted to give him something to look forward to."

Yuna was about to respond when Rikku clamped her hand over her mouth.

"Don't say anything, it'll be fine. I'll go and check that Brother hasn't killed Tidus yet and you get started on the food. I'm starving, " she told her, her gaze lingering on Yuna's eyes. "Lulu's done a fantasmic job with your make-up, really highlights your eyes."

And then she was gone, twirling out of the room and galloping up the stairs in a way Yuna would have thought to be impossible, especially when wearing high heels.

She shuffled into the centre of the kitchen and began to started on the meal. She had chosen to make Al Bhed dishes to introduce the boy to the family's heritage, and also to avoid a melted make-up mishap; all the dishes were to be served cold or raw. As she was chopping and dicing the various ingredients she began wondering why Tidus had be spying on the landing. Was he really that keen to see her? She shook her head, though her cheeks were slightly flushed, and told herself that he was only there to steer clear of spending more time than was necessary with Brother.

Cold and raw food doesn't take a long time to prepare, so she was ready to serve the starter fifteen minutes after entering the kitchen. She shouted loudly as she could that dinner was ready and soon heard a cacophonous clamour as three ravenous people raced down the stairs. Trying desperately not to let the tray slip out of her grasp, she cautiously walked into the dining room where everyone else was already seated.

"Here she is. Please may I present out chef for the evening, our cousin Yuna," Rikku announced.

Expecting to see four heads swing round in her direction, Yuna was pleasantly surprised and relieved to see that the three males at the table were busy, wrapped up in an animated discussion about the last Al Bhed Psyches blitzball game. She placed the tray down and walked around the table, passing the soup bowl to each person.

She took extra care around the new blond head, dreading what the outcome would be if she tripped. It wasn't a time to be lackadaisical.

"Thank you," Tidus said as she put down his bowl and turned to give her a smile.

A lump came to her throat as she attempted to reply. Why was it suddenly so hard to breathe? Again she tried to speak, but those eyes were watching her. His eyes were the exact same shade of cerulean as the blue in her box of watercolour paints, and it was now her favourite colour. He smiled at her once more and she recalled how to inhale and exhale properly.

"Erm… you're very welcome," she said after finding her voice, and rushed to sit down in the empty spot besides Rikku. She didn't need her cousin to tell her that her cheeks were pink, and not from all the blusher that Lulu had slathered on.

"Oooh, chilled cactuar soup, my favourite," Rikku exclaimed, but she didn't start to eat.

"Chilled cactuar soup?"

Yuna glanced up briefly to see Tidus stirring the soup around with trepidation, and hastily looked down at her own bowl before his gaze found hers again. She had to admit it, the soup wasn't the most aesthetically pleasing dish. Vivid green and gloopy, it didn't look very appetising but it was a popular Al Bhed dish, even though it was fairly gruesome to make.

She'd chickened out of making it herself and had gone for the cowards solution. The soup they were about to eat came from tin cans bought from an Al Bhed grocery store. There had been no way to persuade Yuna to prepare it from scratch. Killing cactuars was not a hobby of hers and she had her doubts whether or not Auron would have allowed to either. He'd probably fret about her pricking herself on the needles.

"It's just a name. It's not actually made from cactuars," she told Tidus, thankful that he didn't yet know of her inability to lie.

Tidus looked as if he was about to ask what it was really made from, when Brother began slurping the green soup as if he hadn't eaten in years, much to Rikku's disgust. Displeased with her brother's lack of table manners, she kicked him, but missed.

"Ow!" Tidus cried and his spoonful of soup flew into the air as he let go, splattering onto the tablecloth and staining it a fetching tone of lime.

Both he and Rikku meekly faced the gaze of Cid, who didn't say anything but looked so stern that both of them apologized, then returned to the food.

Minutes passed, during which Rikku, Cid and Tidus ate, Brother gobbled and Yuna kept an eye fixed on her uncle's wine glass which looked like it would soon be needing a top up.

"So," spoke up Tidus, finished with the soup which he had found quite pleasant, despite its colour and name. "If you're the leader of the Al Bhed, does that make you all Al Bhed royalty or something?"

Rikku smirked at Yuna and winked, sending them both into a fit of giggles. Cid laughed as well and Brother was too engrossed in enjoying Yuna's supposed cooking to listen.

"No, thank machina," chuckled Cid, glass in hand. "I'm an elected official, people vote to pick a leader. The law was changed about fifty years or so ago to establish a democracy which most of us lot are grateful for. Can ya imagine what'd happen if this buffoon was in charge."

He pointed at Brother, who was at that moment in time, was licking out his soup bowl and managing to spill some onto his orange dress shirt.

Tidus grimaced and Yuna could almost read his thoughts. Yes, he could, and it involved the entire Al Bhed race dying painful, if not comical, deaths all within days of Brother coming to power.

"We're descended from the royal family though, so technically I'm still the Al Bhed princess. It comes in handy when I get into trouble, especially with detentions." Rikku looked surprised as they all stared at her in disbelief. "What? What people don't know doesn't hurt them," and she took a sip from her glass of orange juice.

Yuna was about to point out that she wouldn't need that excuse if she didn't get into trouble in the first place but held her tongue. Seeing that everyone was finished she cleared the table and headed into the kitchen to serve the main course, remembering to grab Cid's wine bottle as she passed by.

She knew she could get through the evening. All she had to do was avoid those eyes.

------------------------------

"I'm bored," moaned Gippal, not aware that nobody was listening to him.

Baralai's parents were out of town for the weekend so with much persuasion, mainly from Gippal, he had agreed to invite them over. Nooj had declined, being forced to take Leblanc out on yet another date. The guys had shuddered when he told them; no-one deserves to be subjected to that form of torture.

Many things sprung to life in Gippal's mind when the phrases, 'empty house' and, 'no parents' were mentioned, they had so many good connotations. A party was one of them, or a blitzball marathon, or even a karaoke night if they were out of their minds and Rikku was invited.

The reality wasn't really what Gippal had been expecting.

Curled around yet another book on the sofa was Baralai, a dreaming expression on his face as he flicked through the pages that transported him to another world.

Paine was lying across the other settee, plugged into her portable music sphere player. With her eyes closed she looked almost dead but her right foot was tapping along to the beat in mid-air and told Gippal that for now, he didn't have to worry.

It was rather dull though, not talking or doing anything other than breathing, so he settled for fiddling around with his eye patch. He pulled back the elastic and let go and even though it was childish and downright pointless, he found himself having fun. Until he pulled it back too far and it flicked him in the eye.

"Cred!" he roared, jostling Baralai and causing his novel, Kingdom Hearts, to fall onto the carpet.

Paine yanked out her earphones and sat up to stare at them, shaking her head at the idiocy that only men seemed to possess. Oh, and Rikku.

"It's your own fault. Now you know not to play with eye patches, don't you."

"Thank for the tip," groaned Gippal and then realised that he had their attention, a thing he had been craving for all evening. "Anyways, forgetting about my eye for a minute, what are we gonna do tomorrow, it being teachers training day and all?"

"I'm already booked," Paine informed him. "Shopping trip with the girls, don't ask. I'd rather be one of the teachers and spend the whole day in staff meetings but Rikku's dragged me into it and you don't mess with a force of nature."

She was lying. Gippal could always tell when she was because she would use more words than were necessary. He didn't bother asking why. With Paine, some questions could be answered with punches, kicks, or slaps. He didn't need his eye patch to remind him of that.

"Well 'Lai, looks like it's just you, me and Nooj, unless Leblanc requests her Noojie-Woojie again. How does a blitz watching marathon sound?"

"Wonderful," said Baralai, returning to read about Sora and his quest to defeat the Heartless.

Gippal was certain he could detect a hint of sarcasm there; Baralai wasn't exactly what you'd call a blitz enthusiast.

"Now, back to my eye. Do either of you fancy getting me an ice pack or something?"

"Go get it yourself," replied Paine, appalled at his laziness as she began listening to her emo/goth music once more.

Gippal sighed. Sometimes, he felt very unloved.

--------------------------

Tidus had been frightened at first. After being hauled around the house by Brother he had managed to convince himself that he was being fostered by a bunch of psychopaths. Luckily, Rikku had rescued him.

He like Rikku already. Small, energetic and very cute, she seemed to run on the same wavelength as him; life should always be lived to the full.

Cid appeared to share that belief, though slightly more seriously. He had been a bit intimidating at first but had just told Tidus that as long as he followed the rules, he'd do fine. So far, Tidus hadn't seen or heard of any rules but he was sure that they'd turn up sometime in due course.

And then there was the cousin, Yuna. After meeting his new siblings he was sure that she'd be just like them: blond; perky; and not quite what you'd call normal. Instead, he'd seen an apparently shy brunette who had the most dazzling pair of eyes he had ever seen. He hadn't known that it was possibly to have two different colour eyes, but he did now. At least, he though he did, but Yuna hadn't looked his way for the rest of the meal so he couldn't be certain. Maybe Brother's obvious case of insanity was already rubbing off on him and he was seeing things that weren't really there.

"And tomorrow, we're not in school 'cause it's teachers training day, so we'll be able to give you a guided tour of Luca. Won't that be great?" squealed Rikku, invading his thoughts.

"Erm, yeah, great," great he said, whilst scooping up the last of his Sandworm Sorbet.

"Cool, it's a date."

"Well, now that you kids have all finished, I think Brother here will clear up. You three go mess around in the rec room or something. Don't worry, I'll keep an eye on him."

Tidus knew that the last sentence was for Yuna's benefit, and watched out of the corner of his eye as she smiled sheepishly at her uncle and then followed Rikku out of the room.

"Didn't you hear me boy? I said clear off."

Knowing that disobeying his new foster father, not to mention the leader of all the Al Bhed, was probably not the best way to start off his stay, Tidus scrambled for the first door he could reach and found himself in the hallway. He hadn't seen much of it before, due to Brother's less than polite welcome, so decided to seize the chance to explore it now.

Like the rest of the house, it was light, airy and clean, immaculately so. He has the sneaking suspicion that someone had been forced to tidy up prior to his arrival. A small table stood by the door with letters and commspheres on top of it, and next to one of its legs was a knarled plant that looked as if it was rapidly approaching the end of its life. What interested Tidus the most though, were the photographs.

A dozen or so pictures hung on the walls, some in large frames, some in small. Nearly all of them featured blond haired people, but a few showed brunettes. He peered closer.

One of them was a wedding between a blond women and a brown haired man. It wasn't an extravagant wedding but they looked happy and he guessed that that was what was important. Another picture had the same man in it, this time clutching the hand of a young girl who shared the same dusty brown tresses. Tidus glanced at all the pictures and the man appeared in several of them, and then her realised that he recognised who it was.

Hearing footsteps approaching and thinking it was Rikku, he decided to ask about them.

"Hey, why do you guys have so many pictures of Lord Braska? Is he your idol or something?"

A quiet laugh came from behind him and he then knew that it wasn't Rikku.

"No, though Uncle Cid would probably like it if Rikku and Brother took a leaf out of his book from time to time," Yuna said, moving to stand next to him. She paused as if unsure of what to tell him next. "The reason there are so many pictures of him is because, well … Lord Braska is my father.

He was shocked, to say the least.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Lord Braska, High Summoner Lord Braska, is your father?"

She bit her lip and looked own at the floor, tracing patterns into the carpet with her foot.

"Yes," she murmured, her voice faltering slightly.

"And Cid is your uncle?"

"Yes," she repeated.

"So that means," Tidus said, the pieces fitting together in his head, "that your mother was Al Bhed. Either that or Braska was extremely skilled at hiding his heritage.

He meant it as a joke and swivelled his head round to grin at her, but Yuna didn't look too happy and continued to speak to the floor, her foot still tracing patterns in the carpet.

"My mother was Al Bhed and my father was from Bevelle. They knew their relationship would never be accepted by the people so they were wed in secret. I'm half Al Bhed, half Yevonite, and my eyes, they reflect this."

For some strange reason, Tidus had the sudden urge to cheer, shouting, "Go Braska, you rebel," but something told in his mind told him that it just wouldn't be appropriate. Instead, he chose to tell Yuna what he thought about her eyes.

"Your eyes, I've never seen a pair like them before. They're really," he tried to search for a good enough word to describe them, but failed, "pretty."

Her head snapped up.

"Really?"

He was about to tell her yes, that they really were beautiful, the most incredible pair he'd even lain his eyes on, when they were interrupted by Cid telling Yuna that it was time to take her home.

"Well then," she said, turning to face him, "tomorrow then."

He was slightly puzzled, and scratched the back of his neck.

"Tomorrow?"

"Yes, tomorrow. I'm accompanying you and Rikku around Luca."

"Oh right, that. Yeah, should be fun."

"I hope so," she whispered and spun round to leave.

It was then, watching as Rikku nearly hugged the life out of Yuna that Tidus felt a weird sensation, like he felt he was home.

Even if he did have a psycho for a brother.

----------------------------

Nooj barely had any strength left to drag himself inside when he returned home that evening. He had known the Leblanc was somewhat … taxing when he agreed to date her, he just hadn't realised how extremely demanding she could be.

A pair of 'hello's greeted him as he staggered into the hall before his mother informed him that he had a letter. Grabbing it from the pile on the hallway table, he slowly clambered up the stairs, grasping the banister for support. He pushed open the door of his room and subsequently collapsed backwards onto his bed, shoes flying through the air as he kicked them off.

Nooj hardly ever received any mail. The only day he could guarantee he would was that stupid day dedicated to love, marking the wedding anniversary of Lady Yunalesca and Lord Zaon, when Leblanc would 'surprise' him with an exceptionally frivolous fuchsia card, complete with lace and glitter.

Due to the rarity of the event, he ripped open the envelope without even glancing at the stamp to see where it had come from. Seconds later, he wished he'd never opened it.

At the very top of the letter was a crest or insignia of some sort and underneath were the words Lucan Judicial Court. He couldn't read the rest, his eyes were refusing to work properly, but he could see that it mentioned a date and a kind of address.

And then he saw it. The one little word he had been dreading to see, hoping that no-one would mention it for so long. Nooj stared at it, and the word seemed to stare right back.

Typed in bold, italic print, almost directly in the centre of the first paragraph was a word that filled Nooj with such a sense of dread, it was hard to explain.

_**Inquest. **_

----------------------------

**AN** - Wow, is that the start of an actual plotline I see? I'm sure you all know what an inquest is but is but incase you don't, here's a definition from . Inquest - a legal or judicial inquiry, usually before a jury, esp. an investigation made by a coroner into the cause of a death. Does that give too much away? Anyways, you know the drill, reviews are most welcome.

Chilled Cactuar soup anyone?


End file.
